DESIGN SPONGE (WEEKLY, ONGOING)

Be visually curious and collect inspiration, everything from everywhere!

Design Sponge: Seeing the World as an Art Director. This is a concept by Ellen Lupton. Design is something you turn on at your desk only after being a design sponge all day and all night! Document the world around you for:

• Concept
• Form
• Material
• Texture
• Color
• Style…

What to Collect:

• Designed world

  (products, objects, environments, messages, services)

• Natural world

  (animals, patterns, textures, light, color)

• Intersections and patchy assemblages

  (erosion on a sign, moss on concrete, human traces in nature)

• Incidental moments

  (unexpected beauty, awkward designs and vignettes, serendipity)

Sponge-work is Seeing the World Like a Designer:

Theme: Everything from everywhere

• Sketchbook scavenger hunt: Take 5 minutes to draw or jot down three things you noticed today that could inspire design. Could be a leaf, a chair, a light fixture, a pattern on the sidewalk.
• Visual library building: Collect images, objects, or screenshots. Treat them like ingredients for future design “recipes.”

Why being a design sponge matters:

Seeing widely lets you see connections. The better your mental library, the more you can combine and remix ideas into new work.